"In 1913 the War Department acquired a large part of Orford Ness to develop into airfields. This was to start a 70-year period of intense military experimentation. At the pioneering edge of early military aviation, Orford Ness was a hive of activity, working on all aspects of how to use a plane as a weapon.

Bomb ballistics, homing beacons and radar. Work during the inter-war period almost certainly influenced the course of the Second World War.

In WWII the bombing range continued ballistics testing. Firing trials took place to determine the vulnerability of aircraft and their components. The information gathered was used to improve aircraft and munitions design.

Following 1945, lethality and vulnerability trials continued and also work on the aerodynamics of ammunition.  Ballistics testing was extended to include rockets with jets firing from almost no altitude into the King's Marsh. Later on Orford Ness hosted one of its largest secrets, the huge Cobra Mist radar project.

At the height of the Cold War the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment and the Royal Aircraft Establishment (AWRE) used Orford Ness for development work on the atomic bomb.

Continuing all the way through the 1960s ominous half-buried concrete structures were built to contain these most lethal of weapons."

National Trust